My First Poker Game Win Ever!

We started playing in April and have played 11 times since then, once each of the last 10 weeks. I missed the last four weeks because of vacation and academic responsibilities that needed attending. But tonight I was back and feeling some pressure to finally win, as I was one of the few people in our rotating cast of players to play as many as 6 times and not have won at all. I have a reputation for getting a little too reckless.

I play online a lot and so feel like I should be better than I had been doing. A little bit of my troubles come from practicing Omaha all the time and not being used to Hold ‘Em types of odds and strategies but I don’t think I can blame all my losing on that. I usually am smart and lucky enough to last til the last 3 or 4 people, only going out early (first) one time, in my last game before tonight.

So tonight, after a couple foolish moves, I played tighter and more rationally and got lucky on all the decisive hands and actually won, and much earlier in the night than I thought I’d have to go. Games usually go on til past 11 but this game ended by about a quater to nine. So, it didn’t take as much back and forth as I was fearing. SO, anyway, that was more of a relief than a joy.

And since everyone turns on you when you’re the big stack (and doesn’t support you as the underdog, perennial loser of the past), it wasn’t the kind of thing where winning meets congratulations. It’s odd. That may be actually better, a sign of respect that people treat you seriously and don’t pity you just because you’ve not won yet. So, anyway, I hope to keep improving and win again some time soon and hopefully enjoy it more for not having worried I’d always lose. I needed the first win to get some confidence. I think I’ll go back to enjoying myself now as I was the first few weeks<.

Dr. Daniel Fincke has his PhD in philosophy from Fordham University and spent 11 years teaching in college classrooms. He wrote his dissertation on Ethics and the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. On Camels With Hammers, the careful philosophy blog he writes for a popular audience, Dan argues for atheism and develops a humanistic ethical theory he calls “Empowerment Ethics”. Dan also teaches affordable, non-matriculated, video-conferencing philosophy classes on ethics, Nietzsche, historical philosophy, and philosophy for atheists that anyone around the world can sign up for. (You can learn more about Dan’s online classes here.) Dan is an APPA (American Philosophical Practitioners Association) certified philosophical counselor who offers philosophical advice services to help people work through the philosophical aspects of their practical problems or to work out their views on philosophical issues. (You can read examples of Dan’s advice here.) Through his blogging, his online teaching, and his philosophical advice services each, Dan specializes in helping people who have recently left a religious tradition work out their constructive answers to questions of ethics, metaphysics, the meaning of life, etc. as part of their process of radical worldview change.